As is often the case with, for example, chocolate drink, it is difficult to dissolve or disperse a raw material having a high fat content in an aqueous medium such as cold water, boiling water or warmed milk. When such a material is simply added to or dispersed in the aqueous medium, insolubles are remained or settled, which causes separation and flotation of fats and oils. This is a problem.
Thus, various methods have been studied on techniques for dispersing and dissolving chocolate or its oily material in an aqueous medium.
As such methods, there are addition of a hydrophilic material such as an emulsifier to raw materials (see Patent Documents 1, 2 and 3), granulation by spraying an emulsifier mixture (see Patent Documents 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8), addition and kneading of a cyclodextrin to and in a cacao butter material (see Patent Document 9), and the like. However, these methods are mainly directed to provision of solubility in water to raw materials by using specific kinds of additives without considering treatment of the additives and their addition timing. Then, in many cases it is inevitable that a large amount of an emulsifier and a stabilizer are added during dissolution in water. In case of Patent Document 9, for example, the amount of a cyclodextrin and an emulsifier to be used reaches 0.3 fold by weight or more as large as a cacao butter material.
There is another method, wherein hydration can be attained by using a relatively small amount of an emulsifier (see Patent Document 10). However, in this method, it is essential to treat raw materials such as cacao mass and cocoa powder with alkaline water or hot water, thereby requiring a re-drying step. Then, this method is not simple and convenient, and is disadvantage in view of facilities and costs.
Patent Document 1: JP 61-141873 A (pages 1 to 7)
Patent Document 2: JP 8-205773 A (pages 1 to 5)
Patent Document 3: JP 2000-342183 A (pages 1 to 6)
Patent Document 4: JP 11-103780 A (pages 1 to 8)
Patent Document 5: JP 7-87893 A (pages 1 to 4)
Patent Document 6: JP 7-87892 A (pages 1 to 4)
Patent Document 7: JP 10-4883 A (pages 1 to 4)
Patent Document 8: JP 11-69945 A (pages 1 to 6)
Patent Document 9: JP 1-174362 A (pages 1 to 6)
Patent Document 10: JP 2-219543 A (pages 1 to 8)